The 2011 class blog for students taking COM115.9, a course on contemporary horror cinema.

Let the Right one In

Let the right one in is a very different horror movie since the usual vampire that is usually depicted as someone evil and someone who kills, is depicted this time as a friend, as someone who can be trusted. Here we see that we are actually in a way called to root for Eli and Oscar as both face the problems of society, the problem of society in trying to put down people to make them feel good and better. Here we see the irony that even if Eli was a vampire who would drink blood and even kill people, we still in a way root for her and Oscar to beat up and win against the bullies and society. Honestly, I did not really looked at this movie as something to be frightened about, but generally I enjoyed the movie. In a way the use of irony made the movie interesting and I wanted to find out if Eli in any time of the movie would turn evil like kill Oscar or would become society’s worst problem or something like that, of course maybe that was my imagination going around. But I like how they showed the Eli in a way did not have a choice really but to drink blood in order for them to survive. Here I see that the movie did not only change the perspective of vampires but also tried to explain the conditions of vampires. Enough about this though, I want to talk about the complicated yet nice relationship both Eli and Oscar had. I guess given that both in a way did not have that much friends, both saw how they feel at home with each other. For example, when Oscar would always look for Eli and would really look forward to meeting her. Eli on the other hand steping up for Oscar and eventually taking care of the bullies and even the sibling of the bully. In a way, their relationship also talks about the female as the dominant figure, not that I have anything against with it, but because that it is unusual that the female has a stronger personality than that of the male. In fact, this change of roles also makes the movie more interesting, to see if Oscar will eventually live up and fight against the bullies or would it take an intervention from Eli, which as seen did really happen. I also like their relationship because though it did appear that Eli was in control, but it also showed that she needed Oscar too, and despite her strong personality and in way weird like desires, well its normal for vampires to drink blood, it was only Oscar who actually really understood her. Oscar as a human, even after finding out that Eli was a vampire did not really freak out about this, and he saw the human in Eli. This is what I really find unique and special with their relationship, that despite being two different natures, they can still act like two individuals in love, just like any other human or being in society.